by Paolo Crippa (Author)
During the Second World War, the contribution of the Regio Esercito's armoured units on the French front was quite marginal and, for this reason, never examined organically. The deployment of tanks in the first days of the conflict in the Alps, however, should have offered important food for thought for the Italian Commands, because serious difficulties were immediately apparent both in the deployment of the tanks used, which proved to be totally inadequate, and in the tactics of armoured units, signs that were completely ignored and that the same errors were perpetuated in the subsequent phases of the conflict. After this early interlude, armoured units were only sent to France in November 1942, to garrison the coasts of southern France and Corsica, precisely with the task of garrisoning an occupied country and, consequently, never deployed in combat. The Armistice of 8 September 1943, however, marked a turning point: while the units deployed in southern France did not take part in any fighting and returned to Italy, the armoured units stationed in Corsica reacted to German attempts to seize key points on the island and engaged in long days of fighting against the former Allies, fighting that ended with the Germans abandoning Corsica.